What would you do if you started a game for leisure but it eventually put you in peril? Through her first crime novel Ripper, Isabel Allende offers such experience. I recommend this as your time-killer, if you're up for the challenge (don't worry, Allende's unexpected plot won't transpire to you!). 

Here's how it goes down. A teenage detective Amanda Martín—being a daughter of Bob Martín, a homicide detective and Indiana Jackson, a healer in the Holistic Clinic—is obsessed in solving crimes and thus creates a detective game on the internet with some other socially awkward but sharp-minded kids across the globe. In line with her godmother astrologist predicting a bloodbath striking San Francisco, series of unusual death happen periodically, challenging Amanda and the Ripper players to investigate the possible serial murder, unaware of the lurking danger around her and the people she loves. Together with her Ripper fellows, her beloved ones, and the San Francisco police force, Amanda puts the pieces of puzzle together, racing against the ticking clock to save someone she loves.

Being Allende’s first mystery novel, Ripper is fun to read with the captivating details of each character. It does not only focus on following one character’s life, rather, it narrates every character’s back story, enabling the readers to relate to each of them and understand their actions all the while. Although the novel suggests Amanda as the centre of the plot, other characters are told with balanced proportion, as in how Allende narrates Indiana’s love life and serves the detailed story of her love interest. The rich details and shifted centre; sometimes describing the crimes, then following Amanda’s deduction, providing someone’s back story, and telling love story, are craftily used by Allende to build the suspense. Those details matter as the clue, and while you may have your own deduction, it will surprise you how the story is twisted and turned out.

As the novel depicts the life of several characters, it is almost prominent in promoting diversity. The heroine is, like Allende herself, an American of Hispanic descent, which makes the novel is slightly centres among the Hispanic Americans. However, it also involves other Americans of various descent. There is Amanda’s godmother the Serbian Celeste Roko, Indiana’s Japanese co-worker Yumiko Sato, the victim’s family an Ethiopian named Ayani, a Filipino butler named Galang, and some others. They were also of different conditions, in terms of sexual preference, physical intactness, and psychological health. The novel also brings up some religious themes, mentioning all kinds of beliefs without weighing on particular religious view. All those characters of different ethnic and religious backgrounds live in harmony and work together, despite the murder theme the novel depicts. It might be Allende’s attempt to point out the beauty of diversity as well as the actuality of human nature, which in reality exists in her neighbourhood.

While the narrative flow is captivating in detail, it consequently slows down the pace of the plot. The novel is started by a snippet on the suspense, which gives the readers foreshadow to trigger the readers to keep turning the page. It does the trick, though, for without the thought to get there, the readers might be lost in more than the first half of the book. Started off with a gripping criminal scene, the novel proceeds on the expositions, which Allende does well. However, the plot then revolves much around Indiana’s love story, following her love interests Alan Keller and Ryan Miller. At this point, it could be eluding that the book is actually about crime rather than romantic love story. Only at the last chapters does the plot flow faster and it is packed of suspense. In addition, the deconcentrated story, while adding to the richness of the rising action, leads to an ungainly reading experience.

The English translation, translated by Ollie Brock and Frank Wynne from the Spanish El Juego de Ripper, reflects well Allende’s flowing narrative, gripping the readers to the last page. Reading this novel is like reading several at once; crime, romance, war, friendship, and family are packed up inside. With this book, Allende offers a fun and light reading experience on a crime genre. It might be slightly difficult to follow as there are many minor plots, and the rising action takes long to get to the suspense, but it will be paid off when you are at the end of the book. Whether or not you are a crime-mystery fan, Ripper will rip your heart out, in a good way.